Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1887-03-18
"Was 1t for crimes that had done,
He groaned upon the treel
Amazing pity, grace unknown,
And love beyond degree"

out to me. / can see by the sorrow, the an
guish, the woe, by the upthrown hands. That
all means mother. "Oh,n you say, "whv
didn't she go down to the foot of the hill and
sit with her back to the scene! 1t was too
horrible for her to look upon" Do YOU
not know when a child Is in anguish
or trouble it always makes heroine
Of a motheri Take her away, you
say, from the cross. You cannot drag her
away. She will keep on looking; as long as
her son breathes she will stand there looking
Oh, what scene it was for a tender-hearted
mother to look uponl How gladly she would
have sprung to His relief It was her son.
Her son! How gladly she would have clam
bered up on the cross and hung there herself
il her son could have been relieved. How
strengthening she would have been to Christ
If she might have come close by Him, and
soothed HIM Oh, there was a good deal in
what the little sick child said upon whom
q surgical operation of O painful nature
must be performed The doctor said: "That
child won't live through this operation unless
you encourage him. Yo go in and get his
consent" The father told him all the doctor
SAID, and added Now, John, will you go
through with it, viii you consent to itF' He
looked very pale, and he thought a minute
and said: YES, father. if you will hold my
hand willr' So the father held his hand
and led him straight through the
peril. Oh woman, in your hour of
anguish whom do you want with you2
Mother. Young man, in your hour of trouble,
who do you want to csnsole you2 Mother
If the mother of Jesus could only have taken
those bleeding feet into her lapl If she might
have taken the dying head on her bosoml If
she might have said to Him: "It will soon
be over, Jesus it will soon be over, and we
will meet again and it will all be we'll" But
no, she dared not come up so close They
would have struck her back with their ham,
mers. They would have kicked her down the
hill.
There can be no alienation Jesus must
suffer and Mary must look l suppose she
thought Of the birth-hour in Bethlehem
suppose she thought Of the time when, with
her boy in her bosom, she haStened on in the
darkness in the fight toward Egypt. sup
pose she thought of His boyhood, when he was
the joy of her heart suppose she thought of
the thousand kindneSses He had done her. not
;orsak1ng her or forgetting her, even in his
last moment, but turning to John and saying
There is mother; take her with you. She is
old now. She cannot help herself Do for
her just as | would have done for her if had
| lived. Be very tender and gentle with her
Behold thy motherln She thought it all
over. and there is no memory like mothers
! memory, and there is no woe like a mothers
| woe
remark again: This is tender scene be-
cause it is Christian reunion. Why was it
that, in the seasonal meeting, when | asked q
woman if it were her son who sat next to her,
making profession of his faith, she made no
answer; but after moment, trying to con-
trol her emotion, she burst into tears. said
| within myself, she need not tell me the story.
| 1t is the old story of a prodigal got back.
"The dead is alive again, and the lost is
found" Oh, how many families there are
that rejoice together to-day!
These Christians during the rest of the year,
perhaps, will not know much about each other
You go i'll one circle of society, and this one
uavels III that path, and this one the other
path; but to-day we all come on one platform,
and we make one confession, and we
one death anguish. 1t seems to me this morn
ing not like church but like a great family
circle, and we join hands around the cross OF
Christ, and we say: Zone Lord one faith
one baptism, one cross, one Christ, one dox.
ology, one heaven" While 1 stand here il
seems to me as if this communion table, which
Is only seven or eight feet long and three or
feet wide, widens until all the Christians of
our own denomination can sit at it;
and still the table widens until all the
Christians in this land of all names
and denominations come and sit at it,
and still the table widens until it bridges the
sea, and Christians on the other side of the
IOlllO tllll
BILE widens, until the redeemed of heaven min
gle in the communion: Church militant;
church triumphant.
Zone army Of the living God
To His command we bow:
Part of the host have crossed the flood,
And part are crossing now"
Again, my friends, this is an absorbing
scene because it arouseS so many precious
memories. We look back and remember the
days Of our childhood when, long before we
knew the meaning of the bread and the wine
we sat in the side pews on Sacramento days
or in the galleries, and looked as our fathers
mothers, and older brothers and sisters sat al
the communion. Or, if we sat with them
we pulled at mothers dress and said
"What does that mean! What is that il
the cup? WHAT'S that on the plateF' o, yes
we remember those Sacramental days OF oul
boyhood. We remember how much more
tender father was on that day than on any
other day We remember how mother stood
and without saying one word looked at lis
and her eyes full of tears. Oh tn
dear old souls! They have gone! Blu
until the day. of our death we will associat
this holy ordinance with their memory
And when our work on earth is done we viii
just go up and sit down beside them in tn,
heavenly church, as we used to sit beside then
in the earthly church, and then we will drin
new wine in our Fathers kingdom
"Behold the saints, beloved of God
Washed are their robes in Jesus blood;
Brighter than angels, 10, they shine;
Their glories splendid and sublime"
remark again: This scene is tender to-da
because it is a confessional. You and l rt
member the time when if a man had charge
us with anything like imperfection or wron
doing we would have thrown ourselves bac
on our honor, and said: "You don't knoy
who you are talking to- Ishall resent such a
insult to my honor and integrity" We
not feel that way to-day. As we gaze upo
the sacrifice of Christ and think of what W
have been and what we have done
our hearts melt within us. We sc
one dying accursed for our SIM and we hea
Him in his dying words begging for our sci
vice, and vet how little service we have rer
dered. OF this short life we have begrudge
God eysA fragment. Alas Alas Som
of us have lived out the most of our days, an
yet we have rendered to God no earnest SCI
vice. Sad, that we could have so maltreate
Him on whom all our hopes depend. Oh. m
brethren and sisters in Christ, tc
day. join. hands with me in a cor
fession before Christ! If there
any place more humble than another, let L
take it. If there be any prayer more in
Fortunate than another, let us breath it.
there be any confession more bitter tina
another, let us now weep it out.
"Well might the sun in darkness hide
And shut his glories in,
| When Christ, the mighty Maker, died
, For man, the creatures, sin"
Once more: This is a tender and absorbin
scene because it is anticipative. My brethren
we are not always going to stay here This
not our home. This is only the veStibule
the church in which, at last, we expet
to enter. After awhile our nam,
will be taken off the church books,
there will be a mark in the margin to ind
cate that we have gone to q better churC
and to higher communion. Our Father
not going to let His children remain in Il
dust. The grave is no place for us to stay i
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